DC students required to get controversial HPV vaccine (complete lie and total propaganda)

Why the hype?
By Richard Hartman
Oh My Gov
Aug. 16, 2009

Actually it is not required as they admit in this very article, they just blatantly lie to you to get you to inject your children with their deadly vaccines. - Chris In just a few weeks, students in Washington, DC will be back in school and District law requires all students to have their immunizations. For the first time, girls entering the sixth grade need to add the Human Papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination to that list, although it remains voluntary for older students.

Many parents say the school system didn't do enough to inform them about this new requirement or the fact that they actually have the choice to opt out. Yes, the policy is like a Bill Clinton waffle. Apparently DC has a squishy definition of the word "require" since parents can also sign a waiver that opts their daughter out of facing the needle, but learn quickly the bureaucratic ways of paperwork.

Since the FDA's 2006 approval of Gardasil, the vaccine against certain types of the disease that causes genital warts and cervical cancer, there continues to be public debate regarding the government's role in promoting or even mandating the vaccine for school-aged girls as a condition of enrollment in public schools.

So what's the hype on the HPV vaccine? Crucial safeguard of public health, or unproven and possibly dangerous government intrusion? It depends on your point of view.

Since Gardasil was first approved, over one hundred different bills have been introduced in 41 states and the District of Columbia to require, fund and/or educate the public about the HPV vaccine. Governor Rick Perry of Texas faced controversy and political opposition in 2007 when he issued an executive order that would have required the vaccine for incoming students.

That executive order was overturned by the Texas legislature and as of 2008, Virginia and DC are the only jurisdictions to mandate the vaccine for school entry. Currently 12 states have proposed HPV related legislation or resolutions, with Kentucky, New York and Texas considering mandates in the next legislature.

Some fear the long-term effects of a new vaccine, but most medical experts say the only concern is with the short-term possible side effects that accompany most widely used vaccines that contain an inactive virus.

To date, according to the CDC and the Food and Drug Administration there were 13,758 reports of adverse events occurring after women and girls received Gardasil, out of the more than 24 million doses that had been given to girls and women up until that time. On its Web site, the CDC notes that these events "may or may not have been caused by the vaccine."

Most of the problems -- 93 percent -- were considered to be mild, such as headache, nausea and fever. But 7 percent involved a hospitalization, permanent disability, life-threatening illness or death.

Others take a more cynical approach and wonder if the pharmaceutical industry, which stands to benefit financially from widespread vaccine requirements, is exercising its influence with lawmakers.

Whatever your position, the debate is once again heating up about whether or not to require girls to be vaccinated against HPV, which infects approximately 20 million people in the United States with 6.2 million new cases each year.

Currently, the only HPV vaccine approved by the federal Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is Merck's Gardasil, which protects against HPV strains 6, 11, 16 and 18. Almost 70 percent of cervical cancer cases and 90 percent of genital warts cases are linked to these four strains of HPV.

From a public health perspective it only makes sense to prevent disease rather that deal with the symptoms. Unfortunately, there is no treatment for HPV, only treatment for related health problems.

With health care costs on the daily headlines, perhaps governments are doing the right thing. After all, as one of our founding fathers said, "an once of prevention is worth a pound of cure."